South Korea has announced measures to prevent the international leakage of business secrets in response to escalating competition for advanced technologies.

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said the government aims to improve its companies’ global competitiveness by tightening protections against illegal technology transfers.

During a briefing, Minister Choi said the government will implement a big data system within the patent agency to monitor and prevent technology leaks.

Additionally, new regulations will be introduced to impose harsher penalties on offenders, although the specifics of these penalties were not disclosed.

Data from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service indicates that over the past five years, there have been 97 attempts to leak business secrets to foreign countries.

This includes 40 incidents in the semiconductor sector, highlighting a significant area of concern.

If successful, these unauthorized attempts could have resulted in an estimated loss of around 23 trillion won (US$16.85 billion).

The announcement coincides with increased scrutiny of technology security, highlighted by the recent detention of a South Korean executive accused of stealing proprietary semiconductor data from Samsung Electronics.